He told jurors: "Her assailant had stabbed her no less than nine times in what can only be described as a frenzied and remorseless attack by someone having nothing less than the intention of killing her.

"Make no mistake, this was a killing for the sake of killing, carried out by a ruthless and predatory armed killer, who attacked his chosen victim rapidly and stealthily, allowing her no time for defence or escape, and who fled the scene just as efficiently as he had arrived.''

When officers searched his family home last year they found an edition of a local newspaper marking the first anniversary of Claire's death, which he had kept as a trophy. A five-week trial heard chilling details of how Ash-Smith killed Claire as part of a "spree" of attacks on females across Kent.

A self-confessed "animal", he was plagued by a hatred of women who he felt "humiliated" him.

He attacked females, and then bragged about them in diaries - giving himself a percentage rating for how "successful" he was.

Speaking in an eerily-calm voice as he took to the witness box, Ash-Smith told how he went on midnight walks armed with knives hunting for victims.

In an attack he later dubbed his "masterpiece", Ash-Smith attempted to murder and sexually assault a young mother at a quarry in 1988.

Luckily she survived. Ash-Smith told jurors "I used to do it quite regularly. I used to call them my midnight walks.

"I was hoping I would see someone and provoke someone into attacking me.''

Asked why he attacked the woman, he said: "I wanted to feel empowered, that I had control over someone. That I wasn't a doormat."

Five years later he attacked Claire as she walked to a friend's house to talk about college options after finishing her mock GCSEs.

In a decision that was to cost Claire her life, the schoolgirl turned down a lift from her friend's mum and instead walked, taking a detour to buy cigarettes.

But she never made it to her friend's, and was stabbed in the alley. A month later Ash-Smith went to her funeral in the same beige jacket he killed her in.

He spun police a false alibi claiming to be out at the time leafleting with his mother Diane, a Labour councillor and later the local mayor. Two years later he struck again, stabbing Ms Barnard 14 times in an attack that bore many of the same hallmarks as Claire's murder.

But this time he was seen near the crime scene and quickly arrested and jailed.